Pulvis Et Umbra Sumus - Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance
by Writer Bruh
Summary: "Darkness becomes light, and light falls into darkness." Yen Sid puts Sora and Riku through a Mark of Mastery exam. As part of this trial, the two are separated from each other, but during the exam, a group from a universe not unlike theirs falls in and interrupts, finding themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time due to a spell. What will happen as a result of these events?


**A/N/: Whoo, welcome back Y'all! It's time for the long-awaited (not) rewrite of my Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance story! This will be very different, I'm hoping, so buckle in for a long ride! It'll be the same in some aspects, but I'm hoping for a lot fewer plot holes and a lot more "whoa"... kinda. Either way, please enjoy!**

 **Warning: Spoilers for _Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance_ and most likely _Fairy Tail_.**

 **Disclaimer: I _do not_ own _KH: DDD_ or _Fairy Tail_. I _do_ own my OC's.**

* * *

 _In the dimly lit laboratory, nothing but the machines met her first gaze._

 _There was no movement and no odor of any kind. There were lights, but like the stars in a night sky, they did little to lift the darkness, showing only the activity of the hardware-plasma screens of gigantic proportions with text that's too far away to make sense of. Though she was inside, the feeling was more of being in a high tech cave the size of a stadium. Every footfall echoed around, not loudly, but enough to give away her position to anyone who happened to be concealed in there._

 _"Hey!"_

 _Jumping at such a loud, sudden voice, she swung around to see who it came from._

 _It was a man in a guard's uniform with a dark slate gray jacket, silver highlights, and two rows of gold buttons on the front. He wore a black belt and white gloves adorned with a silver, curled heart symbol. His jacket sported pointed shoulders and he also wore black, knee-high boots and a tattered, red scarf. He sported gold eyes, pointed, elf-like ears, upturned eyebrows, and dark hair with several gray streaks tied into a long ponytail. He also had two visible injuries on his face; the first being a damaged right eye covered by an eyepatch, while the other was a large, jagged scar extending from his left cheek to just under his left eye._

 _He was not unlike a person she knew, but somehow... she could just tell that this man wasn't the same. He was different and talking to another._

 _This other was a silver-haired youth with the same golden eyes, wearing a white lab coat with rather loose sleeves that was partway zipped down. The coat had pockets roughly where his hips would be, and he wore black boots white a white or silver lining along the top along with an indentation on the sides. Underneath his coat, he wore a gray vest overtop a white collar shirt, along with a purple ascot around his neck. His hair was worn long with two bangs framing his face, three backward-facing spikes; one was at the top of his head and there was one on either side, just above his ears._

 _It appeared that the older man was shouting at the youth, which made sense considering that this was just another dream of hers-one where she wasn't actually apart of it._

 _"Xehanort! You wanna fill me in?"_

 _Scanning the laboratory floor, there were multiple bodies with some sort of dark smoke rising off of them. Simply assuming, she had the right to believe that this "Xehanort" had killed the bodies littering the floor, and the older man was in on it until everything went wrong in some way. The young man suddenly lifted his arm and summoned some sort of weapon, black and white and... shaped like some sort of key? Despite not knowing what it was, a word rung into her head as if to answer her questions._

 _ **Keyblade.**_

 _"I am..." The young man started to speak, sounding quite disoriented, and the older man stepped forward._

 _"Hey, do you remember now or... wait, did you_ _ **never**_ _lose your memory?" The older man asked, and more questions than answers appeared. The young man lost his memory obviously but had either regained it or simply never lost it in the first place. He had been playing the older man like some kind of fool._

 _The young man suddenly leaped forward and plunged the blade into the older man's chest, causing fear to strike her heart. She had seen many deaths in her time, some of them betrayal much like this one, but that didn't stop her from being scared and... well, disgusted by the actions of others. The older man's eyes widened in shock and after a moment, he fell to the floor, exhaling loudly._

 _"That's not my name. I'm not "Xehanort"."_

 _A crystallized heart of some kind surged from the older man's chest, causing her heart to speed up. What... was going on? It was like she was in some other world._

 _"My name... is Ansem."_

* * *

She woke up faster than a cat in ice-cold water, every sense urging her to claw her way up onto her feet while her heart pounded away, mind full of questions left unanswered. It was as if a hypodermic of adrenaline had been emptied into her carotid. She strained to focus her eyes that were taking in every ray of light, her breathing beginning to steady, and without a single doubt, she knew that she had slept for too long. The noises surrounding her were from a day in full swing, so she pushed her once again weird dream into the back of her head. Usually, with dreams like those, she wouldn't ever have to worry about them again.

Yes, Fate Konno was a very odd Exceed, if that hadn't already been proven.

Her fur was thick and dull, a kind of gray in color that could only be described as the gray of unburnished silver. She may have been a little older than most people expected, but that was only because she was shorter than all of her friends at the height of two feet and eleven inches. The only thing, or things, that made her look older were her visible injuries, whether covered by thick, white bandages or not. Out of the whopping fifteen of them, only seven of them were visible and making your way from the top to the bottom, it just got odder as to why she had them.

The scar on her left ear that just looked like she had gotten it nicked on something and the bandages wrapped around her head to hide the knife wound on the left side of her forehead. The scar on the left side of her neck that had merely been an accident during training and the scar across the bridge of her little pink nose that was the result of a deadly fight. The scar on her right cheek that was from the same knife used to cause the other ones and the most messed up ones according to her was the missing middle and ring fingers on her left paw, down to the first or second knuckle. She hadn't won the argument with one of her best friends, Rory, on that one yet.

However, the most wonderful and outstanding thing about her according to everyone she had ever met (besides all of the magic in her little body, according to Porlyusica), were her eyes. Her partner, Ethan, had once said that they sparkled like storm clouds right before the lightning hit, making them electric. Many had told her that her sapphire blue eyes were electric, but not in the recurrent way the phrase "electric" was used. To every shade, there were ten more shades abaft it, and her eyes were the perfect kind of electric for her.

Striking yet soft.

Nonetheless, she lived each day to the fullest despite her hardships. She liked to believe that she only had one life so she had to seize it, despite her thoughts on the afterlife. Pulling on her usual outfit-a straw hat with crimson and sapphire feathers covered by thin pieces of paper in the same color, a light blue overall dress that went down to her knees, a pair of black leggings, a white, long-sleeved, button-up shirt, and a pair of little orange, brown, and white boots-she quickly left her room to go join her roommates, and friends, in the dining room. Upon showing up she was greeted very differently by all of them.

"Good morning, partner!" Ethan greeted first with his usual grin, and she smiled in return. She and Ethan had been together and gotten close over the past eight or nine years, so it was only natural that he would know and hear her footsteps before anyone else-even if she was wearing socks made completely of fluffy cotton.

Ethan had pitch black hair, resembling the night sky without the stars, that often exploded first thing in the morning whenever he got up. His eyes were hazel and honey, shining like sunlight on polished stone. Providence had seen fit to give him olive skin and black hair, but in a twist of something that might've been spite had made his eyes every shade of pale and golden brown. The golden specks were the most beautiful thing to her, but most people didn't like them. Although, they might've avoided him because of his missing right eye. He wore bandages that wrapped around his head to cover the open gunshot wound, but sometimes when he was quiet-and because he stood at five feet and seven inches-, he could appear unsettling and like someone aggressive.

Ethan was quite the opposite from that, though. He was a very bright and energetic teen with a sense of adventure, no matter the task at hand, although he knew when to be serious. He was wearing his usual clothing (a white t-shirt with a bear paw print adorning it, a blue and white, unbuttoned, long-sleeved flannel, a dark green jean vest, a pair of blue, slightly baggy jeans that were rolled up once or twice at the ends, and a pair of yellow and black sneakers) and carried his usual atmosphere of a loving person.

"Good afternoon, actually." Craig corrected, causing Ethan to pout and Fate to giggle as she was lifted into her partner's lap. Craig had only been around for a couple of years, much like the rest of their friends, and he was the oldest of everyone in the house at twenty-nine years old, but he was still a really great person. He looked like an innocent kid with a life and purpose, but the truth behind it all was that he graduated early ahead of his classmates, skipping many grades, and ended up getting a doctorate.

He was a brainiac and many claimed that he had killed more men than cancer had, but everyone in the Guild knew the truth.

Craig stood at six feet and two inches with dark brown hair that had been dyed an aqua, teal or turquoise kind of color, but only the curls atop of his head. His light brown eyes were bright despite all of the rumors circulating him, reflecting the warmth of the sun behind his rectangular glasses, and a ring of gold hung inside his iris, adding another layer of depth to his already lovely eyes. He always wore a baggy tie-dye hoodie, a pair of dark blue jeans that had been scribbled on with a pen (an anxious habit of his) and a pair of black sneakers with neon green laces.

"Good afternoon." Olivia greeted properly, albeit she simply stared into her mug of tea, and Fate couldn't help but smile at her cousin's attempt to be civil. Olivia may have been her cousin, but they had only known each other for a couple of years at most, one of those years happening to start off with them on different sides of a battle. That didn't make a difference anymore when Olivia called her a shrimp, referring to her height that was short compared to Olivia's three feet and seven inches.

Olivia's fur shined like the sea at night, the black strands utterly white where the bright rays of the sun fell and as she moved, so did those brilliant bands, like echoes of the northern lights. Her eyes were a hickory as rich as the Earth's soil, stained with the color of hot chocolate on a cold, winter's night and a mischievous glint that seemed to reflect the corners of her mouth whenever she got an idea: fighting a smile. She always wore a simple white t-shirt with a black and olive green flannel, a pair of dark blue, skinny jeans, and a pair of cyan and white hightops.

"Good afternoon, Fate." Marcel greeted soon after the Exceed, smiling brightly. Marcel was the most hopeful person who actually followed the laws of science that Fate knew, and she enjoyed every conversation she had with him no matter how short or long it was. Even when Tyler, a very annoying and yet unique demon that was attached to Marcel's soul because of his biological Mother, decided to join in on their conversations.

Marcel stood at five feet and nine inches and was nineteen years old with light, tawny brown skin and dark brown eyes that were brighter than their color suggested. His curly hair was even darker, nearly a blackened brown, but it didn't really matter most of the time because it was hidden inside his hat: a soft, white hat adorning perky little ears on each side. He always wore a dark green jacket over a bright blue t-shirt, a pair of dark blue jeans, a pair of dark green boot-styled hightops, and of course, his hat because he insisted that it kept him one-hundred percent bulletproof. He obviously knew better, but it was his excuse for not giving up the hat.

"Good afternoon, Fate!" Cass greeted alongside Marcel, smiling immediately after Fate did.

Cass, standing at three feet and four inches, was a younger fraternal twin with soft brown fur, like the bark of an oak tree. It wasn't dark, but simply gentle in any light. Without red or golden hues it was like a childhood teddy bear and was the perfect contrast to her usual teal sweater, worn alongside a black t-shirt, a dark beige skirt overtop of black leggings, and a pair of light brown combat boots. Her eyes were the color of milk chocolate edged with a deep forest green, and sometimes the two colors seemed to swirl together like moss creeping over the rich soil.

"Took you long enough. It's nearly one!" Akina complained loudly, and Fate smiled softly at the human girl because she knew it was Akina's way of greeting her.

Akina stood at five feet and six inches with deathly pale skin, hair like the rich soil of the valley after spring rains, and eyes like an ice-cold glacier. If you looked into her eyes, you might think that they knew no warmth and never shared love, but if you got to know her, you would come to learn that the hottest fires always burned blue. She always wore a black jean jacket, a white tank top, a pair of black, fingerless gloves, a pair of dark blue, skinny jeans, and a pair of black combat boots.

"Akina, calm down..." Ine sighed, trying to calm his sister down, and instead of a greeting, he shared a small smile with Fate.

Ine, standing at five feet and one inch, was Akina's younger brother who had been born in a female body but was slowly transitioning to male. It would take awhile, considering that he was fifteen and there were no big resources for that, but they all supported him day after day. He was the exact opposite of his older sister beside the deathly pale skin, sporting short, unkempt, bright blonde hair and soft, ocean blue eyes. He always wore a baggy, white hoodie, a pair of bright blue, baggy jeans, and a pair of dark red sneakers to feel more masculine, and to appear as such to the outside world.

"Good afternoon, sleepy-head. Where'd you go?"

Fate climbed onto the table to speak with her favorite person in the entire household and giggled upon receiving a gentle kiss on her scarred cheek from Destiny, who smiled upon hearing her soft voice.

Destiny, making an awful height difference between the couple at a height of three feet and five inches, had the same hazel-green eyes as his younger twin sister and sported green fur that weirdly carried many of the shades in a forest canopy than whiskers on a fox. Sometimes it was nascent, bright, yet still pale enough to glint from above, and other times, it was the deepest green of mid-summer leaves. Between those two were every shade and every hue, yet it made his fur more beautiful than odd like it should've. He also sported visible scars on his left cheek, parallel to Fate's, and the outside of his right arm, which ran from his elbow to his wrist.

He always wore a black, green and white, sleeveless flannel with a black hood, a dark gray t-shirt, a pair of dark blue jeans that were somewhere in between baggy and skinny, rolled up exactly three times at the ends, and a pair of green and black sneakers.

"I dunno." Fate responded with a shrug, intertwining her fully five-fingered paw with one of Destiny's as she thought about her dream. Perhaps talking about it might help... "... Actually, I went somewhere really odd. I don't know whether it was a dream or a nightmare."

At that, everyone looked at her, seemingly waiting for an explanation that she was both happy and anxious to give.

"I went to some kind of lab that also looked like a computer room, where this man who looked like Norrin was talking to some younger guy... who, now that I think about it, looked like a younger version of Xerum. Like, teenage version, and that makes it so much weirder..." She explained, rubbing the back of her neck absentmindedly to feel her pulse. She was still alive, it was obvious, but the dream had just been... so vivid. "The guy who looked like a younger version of Xerum was named Xehanort, though, and the guy who looked like Norrin wasn't Norring. I could just feel it, somehow... either way, Xehanort had murdered some people, but instead of blood, there was like... some smokey-darkness-looking stuff. Not-Norrin was pretty angry, and Xehanort summoned some kind of weapon..."

She trailed off, and a couple of her group shared some worried looks. Destiny merely leaned over a bit to meet her eyes, snapping her back to reality.

"What kind of weapon?" He questioned, squeezing her paw gently, and she took a deep breath.

"I'm not sure how to describe it, but this thought just rung into my head as if I knew what it was..." She mumbled, clutching the necklace her Grandmother used to own.

It was fully hers now, she was the owner of its magic, but it bore the key-shaped blade resemblance to Xehanort's weapon... just different. Way different, like **super** different, and it made her want to punch something. She wasn't a very violent person either, so that made her worry more.

"It was called a "Keyblade"." She finally responded, gathering everyone's attention again as her face scrunched up in confusion. "There was this talk of memory loss and possibly not-losing-memory, and then Xehanort stabbed not-Norrin in the chest. He said his name **wasn't** Xehanort, even though it obviously was, and it was something like... "Ansem" instead. Nonetheless, he murdered some people and, uh... It appeared as if he had stolen their hearts? In, like, a bad kind of way. It was like some different universe or something... one where hearts could materialize and be used for something."

There was a long pause, and then Ethan patted his partner's head, giving her a reassuring smile.

"I'm sure it was nothing, just like usual." He promised her, and she took another deep breath, smiling this time as she gave a nod.

"Yeah... my dreams are always weird." She chuckled a bit, squeezing Destiny's paw in reassurance that she was fine, bringing a relieved smile to his face.

Akina then snapped her fingers in remembrance, going to the fridge and moving a magnet that was holding a piece of paper: a job. She sat back down and they all sat down, looking at the job... that was in another language.

"I figured you would be able to read it, and then that was the job. We just gotta translate it. Mira showed up early this morning to see if we'd want it because it appeared "mysteriously" at the Guild. I think she just put it aside for us and forgot, honestly..." Akina explained to everyone, mostly aiming it towards Fate, and the young Exceed let out a light laugh before kneeling down to read the job.

It was in Latin and luckily, she knew it well.

"I believe it's a spell..." Fate mumbled after a moment of silence when she realized that everyone was leaning forward eagerly, and Marcel got out of his seat to point at the paper.

"What kind of spell!?" He asked eagerly before pointing at a part of the paper, in which Fate followed his finger. "What does this say!?"

Craig then pulled Marcel back with an annoyed look, shaking his head slightly, and Marcel pouted at him.

"If she reads it aloud, she'll cast the spell. We have no idea what the Hell it could be, either." Craig reminded Marcel, who crossed his arms over his chest tightly and closed his eyes in thought. Craig sighed before leaning over to read what he could of the spell. He knew a little bit of Latin but was more experienced with other things. "What do we do with it?"

"In the job description, the only thing that's in English, it only says "read and learn"," Akina responded with a slight groan, and Fate's ears twitched before she suddenly closed her eyes, speaking the spell.

" _Nisi pulvis et umbra sumus, fruges consumere nati sunt de terra. Si velitis ipsi invocaverimus te. Sensus mirificus emittam furorem tuum, et non protulit provocatione ad aliud simile. I, Cor regnum, et tu vocas, fortis iter agentibus._ "

Everyone paused, Marcel and Ine actually ducking under the dining room table, and Fate peeked open an eye after a moment to find nothing except what had been before. She closed her eyes again, but this time to sigh and give a shrug, turning to Akina.

"Sorry, Akina. I think this was some kind of joke." She told the girl, who was bubbling with a bit of anger over what Fate had done, but mostly over the news she had been presented with. She suddenly grabbed the paper, yelling at it.

"This is stupid!" She complained, and Ethan went to grab it from her, only for her to fight against him taking it. "Let go, idiot!"

"Don't rip it!" He insisted, yelling back, and everyone could only sigh over the common occurrence. "Maybe it was read wrong, or maybe only a certain mage can read it!"

Ine grabbed Akina's hands, trying to pry her away, but the girl held on stubbornly. Fate and Destiny then got involved, with Marcel and Cass right behind them. When Olivia tried to sort things out, Craig also got involved, and then when everyone had their hands and paws on the paper at the same time, it broke... and they were no longer in their shared home, but floating in some sort of blank space, not unlike the areas between time and space themselves.

As they all argued over what had happened, who was to blame, and what was going to happen, some kind of creature-like being crept up behind all of them. They noticed a moment too soon, and with two simultaneous swings, the creature had hit all of them and sent them all in different directions. A big group of them were knocked out and thrown in one direction, while Ethan and Fate had grabbed onto each other moments before and had been knocked into the other direction.

In both directions, two different kinds of keyholes opened, sending each side somewhere in the new universe the spell had sent them to-but each side was oblivious.

And soon, they would learn that this was not an accident in their world.


End file.
